His compositions are still performed almost every day somewhere in the world, but he is hardly known in North Holland. While the Swiss came to our province after the war and lived and worked in Naarden until his death in 1974. The documentary ‘L’Universe de Frank Martin’ is peppered with his music and provides insight into the work and life of this special and underrated composer. This documentary can be seen today at 5:10 PM on NH.
Connoisseurs call Martin one of the most important composers of the 20th century. They praise his versatility: he wrote for choirs, chamber orchestra, solo voice and less standard instruments such as saxophone, trombone or viola.
In the documentary, made fifty years after his death, his life is reconstructed through conversations with his children, musicians’ reflections on his work and old recordings, in which Martin himself speaks.
Dutch wife
Martin’s marital life is not a bed of roses. His first marriage is very difficult and soon ends in divorce. When he marries again, the relationship is very good, but this time disaster strikes: his wife suddenly dies. A sad period follows, until something loving arises between him and a student at the conservatory in Geneva where he teaches. That student is the Dutch Maria Boeke. Although they are 25 years apart in age, their marriage will last the rest of his life.
After the Second World War they moved from Switzerland, via a short stay in Bergen, to Amsterdam, where they lived for ten years on the Prinsengracht, together with their two children and the three daughters from his previous marriage.
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In order to compose more quietly, Martin moves with his family from increasingly busier Amsterdam to a villa in Naarden. This becomes the anchor point in a life that consists of working on new pieces of music and traveling all over the world to perform that music.